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EVERY DEGREE A DREAM

Mount Wachusett graduates told to go for biggest horizons

By Michael Hartwell, mhartwell@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
05/17/2013 07:02:42 AM EDT

SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / BRETT CRAWFORD
Annie Bray gives a high-five as she and her fellow graduates process into the Fitness and Wellness Center for Mount Wachusett Community College's commencement in Gardner Thursday night.

GARDNER -- Family, friends and faculty members filled the gymnasium at Mount Wachusett Community College on Thursday to witness the 752 graduates of the school's 50th year take home 805 degrees and certificates.

"My kids have been my main driver," said Daryl Johnson, 38, of Fitchburg. He said he neglected to get a degree after high school and wanted to set a better example for his daughters Audrey, 13, and Eileen, 4.

Johnson works at a plastics company in Shirley and said it was hard being a husband and father, a worker and a student at the same time. Now that graduation is finally here, he says it feels surreal. Johnson received an associate's degree in plastics technology and said the next step is to get an industrial-engineering degree from Fitchburg State University.

SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / BRETT CRAWFORD
Graduating students make their way to commencement on a picture-perfect spring day.

Commencement speaker Robert Regan, a former media executive, the director of a think tank at Ithaca College and a graduate of Mount Wachusett Community College's class of 1975, told students to dream big. A Lowell native from a blue-collar background, Regan said everyone warned him his high-school dream of working in television was too lofty and he should aim lower.

He said he's gone far in life with the slogan "You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket."

Natural-resources major Christin R. Racette, 20, of Townsend, decorated her cap with flowers from her yard, including a dogwood blossom, a pink rose and lily of the valley.

"I want to work in an orchard or maybe a greenhouse," said Racette.

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Joan Viner of Rutland was there to cheer on her granddaughter, Sarah Patch, who works as an EMT at HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster. Patch, 31, is a mother of two who now has a nursing degree and plans to switch to that career.

Peggy Williams, 48, of Winchendon, earned her degree in human services and wants to continue working in the mental-health field.

Williams, who is vice president of the school's Human Services Club, was born in Trinidad and came to America in 1987 for surgery.

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